Sharh mushkil al-athar

Sharh mushkil al-athar is a book by Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Salama al-Tahawi (d. 321 AH) (his biography). It sets out reports whose wording seems to conflict, and reconciles them, identifies the abrogating report, or weighs one against the other. ¹

The introduction explains the method. The author states the two conflicting reports, analyses them until their meanings can be brought together and the conflict disappears. If one of them is weak, he sets it aside and keeps the sound one, since a weak opposing report does not affect a sound one. If both are equally sound, he searches for a meaning that reconciles them. If they clash and cannot be combined, and the dates of both are known, the earlier is taken as abrogated by the later. If the dates are unknown, he prefers one by the ways of weighing reports. ¹

The introduction also says he follows no particular school. He follows the meaning of the hadith and draws rulings from it. ¹

The introduction notes that the book does not arrange its chapters by fiqh subject, as the author's Sharh ma'ani al-athar does. Hadiths on wudu, prayer, fasting and other rules are scattered from the beginning to the end of the book. ¹

The chapter "Explaining what is difficult in what is reported from Aisha" takes up the report that the Prophet ﷺ did not die until women were made lawful to him. It gives Aisha's and Umm Salama's reports with their chains. The editor judges one chain sound on the conditions of al-Bukhari and Muslim, and records where the report is found in al-Nasa'i, al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Sa'd. ²

The next chapter, on difficult reports from the Prophet, continues the same work, presenting each report, its soundness, and its meaning. ³

Tuhfat al-akhyar bi-tartib sharh mushkil al-athar is the same work, re-arranged by Khalid Mahmud al-Rabat by fiqh subject. The book has 1,002 chapters in its original order, and the editor says they run in no fixed sequence. He kept each chapter whole, placed it under its subject (faith, purification, prayer and so on), and left the author's commentary attached to each chapter. Takhrij was reduced to the sources he judged most useful, since the Arna'ut edition already carries full takhrij. ⁴, ⁵, ⁶

The editor also notes that the book contains more than six thousand chains, most of them sound or fair, with few weak and rare forgeries. ⁴

The judgements on chains in this record are the editor's, as they appear in his notes. Page numbers are scan pages, because not all printed folio numbers are legible in the OCR. ¹